Yes, it's harmful and if you appear a notch too aggressive they will probably dump you. (Reading articles about salary negotiation in the valley is possibly the most harmful thing a French person could do to themselves)
Assume it's French cheap staffing companies (90% of the employment market there), akin to tata or infosys for foreign readers.
There is a very narrow salary band for the position depending on university and age. They won't bulge for one euro. They'll simply keep looking for candidates to find a cheaper one.
They are well aware that their salaries are low. They see their offers refused time and again. They see candidates leaving in droves for better positions/industries as soon as they can. Doesn't matter, it's just business, gotta stick to the salary grid.
Because that's all there are in a 50 miles radius.
Thinking you're going to work for Google after reading English articles, is really harmful when the closest FAANG office is thousands of miles away in another country.
I am from minor city in Europe, with no FAANG presence, but I found another company with similar engineering first principles. Nobody cares about education and promotions are fully merit based.
I've worked in multiple places, I am in London now. Jobs prospects are extremely variable by location. (It's near zero for most of Europe that could be qualified as deep countryside).
You're extremely lucky to have found a good opportunity in a good company. I will guess back that you live in a major metro area.
France has very little tech industry for many reasons that would be too long to cover. Even the largest national companies that need technology do not hire. If you're familiar with the myth that it's impossible to fire in France, in short that's true, once you have a job it's for life. One consequence is that no company is open to hiring, they only resort to staffing/outsourcing agencies.
I used to work for a well known software company. We had employees from all over the globe. Many were in rural towns from Eastern Europe to Switzerland to random towns in the US. Those companies are rare, but they’re out there (and this one was / is a great place to work). I hope that COVID has made this concept more acceptable to more companies.
> Assume it's French cheap staffing companies (90% of the employment market there)
This is caused by overly restrictive and rigid labour law. Companies offload that problem to staffing companies. This is a way to go around restrictions and to increase flexibility in the marketplace, but actually employees (at least very qualified ones like engineers) do not really benefits.
That being said, it is possible to find permanent positions and I never worked for a staffing company ('SS2I' as it used to be called) when I was in France.
Assume it's French cheap staffing companies (90% of the employment market there), akin to tata or infosys for foreign readers.
There is a very narrow salary band for the position depending on university and age. They won't bulge for one euro. They'll simply keep looking for candidates to find a cheaper one.
They are well aware that their salaries are low. They see their offers refused time and again. They see candidates leaving in droves for better positions/industries as soon as they can. Doesn't matter, it's just business, gotta stick to the salary grid.